1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to assembling a linear track in a guided motion system. In particular, the invention relates to a track assembly that supports a quick and easy method of assembly of linear tracks to standard base extrusions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In manufacturing processes and within manufactured capital goods themselves, precise and repeatable motion is useful and often essential. For example, in manufacturing processes ranging from machining to textiles to electronics, tool heads or other items move back and forth and must do so precisely and repeatedly over enormous numbers of cycles. In another example, specimens and instrumentation move relative to each other within laboratory analytic devices to collect data on the samples and must do so precisely and repeatedly.
Guide wheels attached to support bases and riding on rails are one class of guided motion technology that provides precise and repeatable kinematics. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,661,431 discloses guide wheels and tracks in which guide wheels cooperate with rails such that the guide wheels may move along the rails.
An exemplary track used in guided motion application is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates an exploded view of a guided motion apparatus 100 as known in the prior art. FIG. 1 shows a “Vee” edge track 120 and the DualVee® guide wheel 110 both manufactured by Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation. The track 120 is coupled with a support base 130. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the support base 130 comprises an extrusion.
Known support bases are typically available in a standard sizes and configurations. For example, the extrusion 130 shown in FIG. 1 is a representation of a standard aluminum extrusion support base manufactured by Parker Hannifin Corporation, located in Cleveland, Ohio, which is widely used within the guided motion industry.
Also widely used in the guided motion industry are track assemblies for coupling the track with the support base. FIG. 1 illustrates a known track assembly 125 for coupling the “Vee” edge track 120 to a standard extrusion 130. Previous attempts of providing track assemblies for standard support bases have been complicated, time consuming, difficult to assemble due to the requirement of fasteners, expensive to assemble, and unreliable due to the use of moving parts, among other shortcomings. Indeed, there are many disadvantages to the current state of the art.
Due to the deficiencies of the prior art, there is a need to provide a reliable, effective and easy to assemble track assembly for use with linear motion support bases. Therefore, there is a need to provide a track assembly that effectively couples with a standard support base.
There is also a need to provide methods of manufacturing track assemblies that effectively couple with a standard support base without the use of fasteners. Additionally, there is a need to provide methods of assembling guided motion systems using fastener-less assembly techniques.
Likewise, in applications in which the use of fasteners is preferable, there is a need for uncomplicated, easy-to-assemble, reconfigurable, and universal faster systems.
One drawback of the prior art is that linear guide tracks that utilize fasteners and track assemblies are designed for use with a particular base extrusion. For example, many known linear guide tracks are specifically designed to work with the various T-slot extrusions manufactured by Parker Hannifin Corporation, located in Cleveland, Ohio. However, the specifically designed track assemblies are useless with other extrusion bases or configurations. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a track assembly that is universally useful in any extrusion having a T-slot configuration.
Another drawback to the prior art is that known solutions oftentimes require that the end user cut, drill, or otherwise machine a set of work pieces to initially configure a linear guide system. This is problematic for end users who do not possess a sophisticated machine shop or for those who do not possess the requisite skill to fabricate the required materials.
Furthermore, pre-drilled track is very expensive and requires a user to layout the substrate to which the track is to be assembled in advance. This too is problematic because the user must be especially precise and must have detailed plans well in advance. Moreover, once one particular setup is configured, it cannot be reconfigured without taking apart the entire system and re-drilling.
Another drawback to current linear motion systems is the width profile of a track assembly. For example, known linear motion guides are bulky.
Another significant drawback of the known art is that drilling track and attaching it to a substrate with a plurality of individual fasteners oftentimes results in undulations and imperfections in the linear track. These undulations can negatively affect the entire system.
Likewise, it is difficult to maintain parallelism of the tracks when simply drilling a track down. Oftentimes, parallelism in the tracks is of the utmost importance. For example, a track that even one-one thousandth of an inch off-parallel can negatively affect the performance of an entire linear motion system.
Some other prior art solutions include simply placing a track directly into a T-slot of a base support extrusion. These known solutions oftentimes result in an unacceptably imprecise fit. For example, commercially available base support extrusions will vary in T-slot width for any given mill run. Therefore, a track having a uniform width will either fit too tightly or too loosely within the extrusion's T-slot. Therefore, there is a need to provide a track support extrusion that can reliable accommodate a standard-sized track despite the occasion of small size variances.